Austin’s Chris Roberson talks ‘Elric’ for Free Comic Book Day

Short of forging his own Stormbringer sword and dying his hair white, Austin comic writer Chris Roberson has immersed himself in so many things Pale Prince for his upcoming comic series Elric: The Balance Lost. The first issue debuts in July, but you can pick up a special prequel Saturday for Free Comic Book Day. (Click here for a preview.)

Elric of Melniboné is the albino warrior from the fantasy works of Michael Moorcock, who’s also renowned for his dimensionally diverse “Multiverse.” Roberson, who’s a friend of the Texas-based Moorcock, calls it a huge honor — and huge pressure — to write the Elric comic. Which is why he reread every single Moorcock-related comic to date, whether Moorcock wrote it or another scribe adapted it from his work into comics.

“I’m just wanting to do a story that (Moorcock would) be at least willing to have his name associated with,” Roberson says.

The Eisner-nominated writer of Superman and iZombie says his Elric comic marks the first original Elric in comics aside from a brief appearance in an adaptation of a Neil Gaiman story by P. Craig Russell. It also marks the first long-form Elric tale not written by Moorcock in any medium.

Roberson didn’t reveal much about this tale but says it will feature “as many different Mike Moorcock characters as possible,” including Corum the Scarlet Prince and Dorian Hawkmoon.

“It is essentially Crisis on Infinite Earths or Secret Wars with all of these different Michael Moorcock worlds in collision,” Roberson says.

And what better way to honor the granddaddy of the Multiverse than with Elric in a world-hopping adventure?